Last Rights is the seventh studio album by Canadian electro-industrial band Skinny Puppy. It was released in March 1992 as the group's final record distributed through Nettwerk. Last Rights saw the band experimenting with two opposite extremes: cacophonous heavy music and gloomy melodies, resulting in moments of industrial weight as well as moments of uncharacteristic softness. Along with containing some of the band's most impenetrable walls of sound and an eleven-minute track composed almost entirely of manipulated and distorted samples, Last Rights also features Skinny Puppy's first ballad.
The album's production was troubled both internally and externally, involving tension within the band and threatened litigation from without. After its release, it was followed by Skinny Puppy's last tour for twelve years. Despite Last Rights difficulties, it was well-received and named by Alternative Press as one of the best albums of the 1990s. It spawned two singles, "Inquisition" in 1993 and "Left Handshake" (distributed under the title "Track 10") in 2000, and was the band's first release to chart on the Billboard 200.
Background and production
After Skinny Puppy released Too Dark Park in 1990, internal stress began to take its toll on the band. Manager Mark Jowett recalled the time, saying, "They internally combusted to some degree". Though the band was still functional and able to record music, much of the friendliness was gone when it came time to work on Last Rights. Dave Ogilvie, longtime producer and temporary member of Skinny Puppy during the 1988 VIVIsectVI sessions, acted as a middleman between the two halves of the band. First, he would record with Goettel and Key, and afterwards he would bring Ogre in and work with him in isolation.
thumb|upright|right|alt=|1169 Nelson Street in [[Vancouver, British Columbia, one of the sites of Last Rights recording]]
Ogre conceived of and recorded all of his lyrics in the studio with minimal planning. Key and Goettel also recorded their part of the music in-studio; about the process, Key said, "I think with [Last Rights], it was our opportunity to just let the album create itself by the collective energies involved". Because the band had access to new equipment, Key and Goettel spent more time on the post-production of Last Rights than on any other Skinny Puppy album, specifically on noisy and complicated songs like "Scrapyard" and "Download". and Key and Goettel were fearful for his life. Ogre experienced vivid, drug- and insomnia-induced hallucinations in the studio, leading to what he called the "best sessions" of recording. He remained there until Skinny Puppy embarked on a tour of North America.<!--this is said at 15:22--> and its subsequent tour, Ogre was clean and the band was functioning, but the future of Skinny Puppy remained unclear.
"Left Handshake"
Last Rights production encountered more problems when its tenth track was faced with legal action. The song in question, "Left Handshake", featured vocal samples of Timothy Leary from his 1967 release Turn On, Tune In, Drop Out. Because so much of the album's lyrics were about drugs and drug abuse, Key wanted the final statement of Last Rights to be his and Goettel's take on the issue. Key considered "Left Handshake" as a "last argument" that "really rounded off the album". What resulted was a sort of back-and-forth between the cut samples and the vocals of Ogre, who construed the sound bites as an attack on his addiction. but Henry G. Saperstein, owner of the copyright, threatened to sue Skinny Puppy if they released the song. "Left Handshake" would not see a release until eight years later when it was distributed in a limited capacity under the title "Track 10".
Often described as Skinny Puppy's darkest and most experimental work, but those elements give way to a heavy emphasis on walls of noise, On the album, the group's employment of samples was refined Compared to Skinny Puppy's previous work, Last Rights is a more internal and personal album, "Killing Game", is one of the group's more well-known and atypical tracks,
"Inquisition" marks Last Rights midpoint and stands as its primary single. Despite being a propulsive, sample-heavy, pounding industrial dance track, it still acts as a lull from the album's chaos. The last song of the album, "Download", stands in place of the original closing track, "Left Handshake". It is entirely derived from manipulated samples and features little to no rhythm. The stage show for Last Rights was less overtly violent and grotesque than on previous Skinny Puppy tours, focusing instead on coming to terms with negative emotions. resulting in Skinny Puppy's most ambitious and prop-heavy tour. The backing film was timed so that whenever Ogre entered the machine, his face would appear onscreen and the audience could watch as something attacked and tortured him. Some Canadian prints of Last Rights mistakenly featured the CD art from "Tormentor" (1990), a single off of Skinny Puppy's previous album, Too Dark Park. Despite these troubles, Last Rights was the group's first album to chart on the Billboard 200, peaking at position 193 and becoming Skinny Puppy's most popular release at the time.
|rev2 = Entertainment Weekly
|rev2score = B+
|rev3 = Los Angeles Times
|rev3score =
|rev4 = Melody Maker
|rev4score = Very favorable
|rev5 = The Morning Call
|rev5score = Favorable
|rev6 = Select
|rev6Score =
|rev7 = Sputnikmusic
|rev7score = 4/5
Last Rights was met with positive reception. John Bush of AllMusic considered the album Skinny Puppy's technical and artistic peak, going so far as to call it a "sonic masterpiece" that was "ten years ahead of its time". However, not all critics were taken with the album's assault of sound. Dave Morrison of Select called the album "a huge stir-fried noise that's genuinely astonishing at times, but generally unfocused, often collapsing under its own weight".
Personnel
All credits adapted from liner notes.
Skinny Puppy
- Nivek Ogre – vocals
- cEvin Key – synthesizers, guitars, bass guitars, drums, production
- Dwayne Goettel – synthesizers, sampling, mixing
Production personnel
- Dave Ogilvie – mixing, production
- Brian Gardner – mastering
- Ken Marshall – engineering, mixing
- Anthony Valcic – editing
- Martijn de Kleer – synthesizers <small>(track 11)</small>
Design personnel
- Jim Cummins – artwork
- John Rummen – layout, design
- Andy Graffiti – artwork
Chart positions
{| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders"
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! Chart (1992)
! Peak<br>position
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! scope="row"|US Billboard 200
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|}